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I’m in my thirties, and I live in a big city. What that means is that I’m not subjected to much of the pressure to have already been married and had kids for five years at this point. I’m considered young here. I’m practically still a kid! Nobody expects you to have accomplished anything in your twenties in a big city. That’s the time to make mistakes, get and lose several jobs while still figuring out what you want to do, sleep with the wrong people, long-term date a few of the wrong people, be broke and laugh about it, have several roommates – the twenties are just extended college years for those of us in big cities, really. And yet, this pandemic has me suddenly feeling…old. Not quite old but…age. I’m feeling that age is real. Which is something you just don’t acknowledge in big cities where 57-year-old men go clubbing and have 32-year-old girlfriends. Life was fun, light, and playful before this. The way childhood feels. But this pandemic has brought this weight down upon me, and I’m having all sorts of odd thoughts and feelings that, honestly, aren’t that far from what a midlife crisis can be like – so I’ve heard. And from talking to my peers, I’m learning that I’m not the only one feeling this way. Here are reasons the COVID-19 pandemic may cause an early midlife crisis for some.
My industry is a thing of the past
For many of us, it feels that our industries are now a thing of the past. The industries that were booming – the ones in which we were hustling and thriving – just evaporated when this virus stormed the world. Suddenly, we are experts and professionals in outdated lines of work. The very buildings in which we worked are changing into something else.
